Friday, January 30, 2015

It has been amazing to be a part of everyone's journey, we began the month with very little powder experience and finished with the creation of self-portraits! Participating in this challenge has been frustrating and exhausting and entirely out of my comfort zone, but I have totally enjoyed the whole thing. I am sorry to see the month end and inspired to keep creating.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Today's challenge is to begin a self-portrait in glass powder. Since Einstein was my first portrait in any medium, this is my second. I tried to take a selfie but hated each one I snapped so I used a photo my husband took at the beach last fall - I think it's easier to see myself through his eyes. Dissecting my features to create this portrait was painful and adding the teeth in just reminds me of the shark sketch. After stepping back and taking a look at the progress, my sunglasses seem to be squeezing my brain and I think I have Einstein's jaw line. I will try some more later.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Day 28 of the challenge - finish up the portrait of Albert Einstein. So here is a glass powder portrait on a 5 inch square piece of Bullseye lacy white glass. My husband thinks Einstein looks too young but my daughter likes it. I'm not happy with the blotchy shadow on his cheek, or the shadow on his chin, or the shape of his forehead/eye but I feel like the more I mess with things the better the chance I screw the portrait up.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Draw Albert Einstein. The challenge for today and tomorrow is to do a portrait of Einstein. I don't draw faces with pencil or pen or paint and definitely not glass powder. So here goes. Einstein started upside down. There is something wrong with the angle of his forehead or the creases of his brow or maybe the length of his face. I'm not sure but I will work more on it tomorrow and hope no one sneezes and upsets the powder.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Draw a tree upside down, starting with the trunk and drawing the branches out towards yourself. Today's tree was based on a tree in Charleston, SC that was a beautiful specimen with grand sweeping branches. I wish I had added the mini because it really gives a reference for the actual size of this tree. Using my left hand to create the left side and my right for the right side was interesting, my left handed branches felt more organic but not shaded as well.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

The challenge for day 25 asks that we sketch a tree using our non-dominant hand and assorted tools to manipulate the glass powder. After yesterday's free form tree, I decided to use a photo for inspiration. Creating with my left hand was actually comfortable but extremely conscious. It was difficult to think lefty - my supplies kept ending up on the right side and it was hard to focus on working right to left so I didn't drag my sleeve through the sketch. Unconsciously defaulting to righty, I kept forgetting and had to turn the drawing upside down so as not to disturb something already drawn. This drawing took longer than yesterday so when I finally got to the bird my hand was shaking, at first I used my pinky for extra stability and then even my right hand for resting my left wrist on.

Glass Powder Painting Sketch of Wood Stork

This photo of a wood stork was taken at the rookery in the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. I wanted to include the foliage but my brain was getting tired of thinking lefty and I was afraid to mess everything up.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Day 24 of 30 asks that we sketch a tree using just our non-dominant hand and a business card to manipulate the glass powder. I used my left hand to drizzle powder and then drag a torn business card to carve out the branches and add a little bark texture. It was so relaxing to just let the business card find the tree in the powder. Creating from my imagination is much easier than trying to reproduce a close-up of an actual object with a specific shape, definite texture and set light source.

Friday, January 23, 2015

The challenge for today is to sketch a collection. We collect seashells from all the beaches we visit, we keep them in jars and cigar boxes and displayed on shelves. I love to stare at the growth patterns and feel the worn edges. My daughter helped to choose these.

Glass Powder Painting Sketches of Sea Shells

This sketch was hard, but they all seem hard to me. I had issues with keeping the coral in the background and scaling all the shells to each other.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Draw a safety pin. This was a quick 5 minute sketch that was just about the clean, crisp lines of an everyday metal safety pin. I used a sifter, a business card and a flossing tool to create softer lines in the shading.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Draw a bouquet of flowers in a container. This was ridiculously hard. I couldn't decide how to differentiate between flower types, get the size right and still create depth with shading. My daisies are too small and there are definite petal angle issues among many other problems. Every time I tried to fix one thing I messed another up so I decided to just call it good for now. Or maybe I'll add just a little bit more shading.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

More flowers for the today's challenge! I chose an old photo that was taken at Cherry Blossom Festival in Atsugi Japan, 2005. I tried to capture more depth this time, trying to establish some flowers in the foreground, middle and background. I used my fingers to drizzle powder and then create the lumpy texture on the branch. A q-tip was used to make the softer flowers in the background and a scraper from a scrathboard kit was used for the detailed flowers. A wax carver's pointy tool made the centers and cleaned up some of the shading.

Glass Powder Painting Sketch of Cherry Blossoms

This photo was taken when we had just moved out of the US for the first time and our daughter was 3. So much has changed since then, but cherry blossoms always remind me that moments don't last very long.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Today's challenge is to sketch a floral in glass powder. I created a sketch of a giant white swamp lily I found at the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine Florida. I stuck my finger in the finished powder drawing as I was transferring it to the kiln. To make it look more intentional, I dabbed the background more and now the sketch has a sort of textured background. Oh well.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

A second try at this weekend's challenge of creating light colored items in the negative space. The subjects for today are two sea shells we found on the beach at Tori Station in Okinawa. I had quite a bit of trouble shading for texture and shading for 3-d at the same time, but I'm working on it. I used light peach glass and black powder. Tools used were my larger sifter, a business card, a scraper from a scrathboard kit, a wax carver's pointy tool and a q-tip.

Saturday, January 17, 2015

The challenge for this weekend is to create 3 glass powder sketches of something white. I chose African irises or Dietes Iridiodes. I tried to pull the irises out of the negative space while still trying to shade the petals with some veining. Pushing powder out of the way created a thick petal edge and made them feel heavier than they actually are.

Glass Powder Painting Sketches of White Irises

I sketched a few white irises that grow near my house. These flowers seem to bloom randomly and at all times of the year. They grow like weeds around all the retention ponds in the housing developments.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Not really sure which day of the challenge is which. Here's a powder painting of what I ate, trout. This sketch was created from my husband's drawing using black glass powder on a 5 inch square piece of Bullseye forest green and fired to 1400 deg F for 4 minutes.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

The challenge for day 15 is to draw another sketch of something that frightens you. I drew a brain since all of my fears are just in my head. That, and I have a huge tendency to over think things. I used my husband's anatomy book as a general guide. I drizzled powder with my fingers to create the basic shape and used a business and a wax carver's metal tool to clean up the lines.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

The challenge for day 14 is to draw a sketch of something that frightens you, but make it fun. The fear part I understood, the make it fun part I kind of missed. My fear is of the unknown, worrying about things I can't change and planning for things I can't control.

We are a navy family and are thinking about our eighth move in 17 years. We have been overseas twice and will hopefully transfer to Europe this June. I'm excited to see the new cities but I really don't enjoy the packing and unpacking and then finding the new school and grocery store and vet and even friends. I stress over all the changes and forget the good surprises that wait. This sketch is all the stress and anxiety I feel waiting to move and not knowing what to expect. The jellyfish are the good things just swimming below all the rough water and simply moving with the flow, calm and oblivious to any chaos.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Lucky 13, draw a shark from the provided photo to practice contrast and shading. First, too much black powder was sifted for the dark background and too much time was spent pushing granules of powder back and forth. When finished, I stepped back to look at a copy that was too squished and really not done all that well. I didn't feel a personal connection with the subject and never really got invested in the powder sketch. The owner of this photo is unknown to me so nothing was fired and the black powder was dumped back into the jar.

Monday, January 12, 2015

Today's challenge is to create a glass powder sketch of something we use everyday, I chose a fork and a spoon from our silverware drawer. My silverware belonged to my grandparents. Sometimes, but never often enough, I think about the hands that have touched each piece of this set over the years. Mostly, though I forget to remember the little things because we always seem to be in a rush.

Glass Powder Painting Sketch of a Fork and Spoon

Here's the fork and spoon. I had intended to draw a bunch of forks and spoons piled randomly on each other, but it seemed way too daunting. I used my sifters, a business card, a scraper from a scrathboard kit, and a q-tip.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Sketch a vegetable in black glass powder. The only vegetables left in the fridge are onions, scallion, potatoes and cabbage. Can you tell it's time to go shopping? I chose to re-create a savoy cabbage leaf in both positive and negative pics. The positive, where I removed glass to form the stem and veins took about a minute. I did try to use the leaf as a stamp, but I couldn't get a clean print. The negative, took like ten minutes to complete. It was hard to create the pattern randomly, but within the vein pattern.

Glass Powder Painting Sketch of a Cabbage Leaf, Positive

Glass Powder Painting Sketch of a Cabbage Lea, Negative

Here's my cabbage. I tried cutting different cross sections to see the different shapes but wasn't feeling any of them.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Day 10 of the challenge asks that we wing it, improvise a piece of fruit in some sort of setting. Feeling pretty literal today, I drew an apple tree, literally. I used a business card, my fingers and a q-tip.

Glass Powder Painting of an Apple Tree

I think best with a pencil in my hand, so I sketched a few ideas first, starting with the apple tree branch, a tree in an apple, a tree growing out of an apple and even a tree topped with a giant, single apple.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Draw apples with a found tool (scraper from scratch board kit), a business card and powder sifters. This was a tough challenge because I have never drawn fruit or any other still life. I had a huge amount of trouble trying to decide where the light was hitting each apple so I made a little set-up to better see what was going on. Also, I used a paper towel to create the texture under the apples, a second found tool.

Glass Powder Sgraffito Frit Paintings of an Apple

Here is my set-up for the fruit sketch. I think this took longer than the actual drawings. I wanted to create strong shadows like you see on the real still life paintings but I had so many light sources in my room that I had an absurd number of shadows. I shut all the lights off and turned the flashlight on and could really see the apple shape in the strong shadows. Hope this came across in the powdered glass.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Day 8 and another use a new tool challenge with a focus on egrets. Today, I used the scratching tool that comes with the $1 scratch board kits from Michaels Arts and Crafts store. It worked really well because the tip is slightly curved and allowed the powder to move with the tool rather than just be plowed out of the way. The three powder drawings are three versions of the same egret. I wanted to see if I could recreate a similar image different ways.

Glass Powder Sgraffito Frit Painting of a Great Egret - more angular

Glass Powder Sgraffito Frit Painting of a Great Egret - with sky

Glass Powder Sgraffito Frit Painting of a Great Egret - simplified

My husband's photo of great egret taking flight in Taipei Botanical Gardens. You can tell it's a great egret and not a heron because of the black legs, I think.

Taipei Botanical Gardens

To create my glass drawings I used two sifters, a business card and the scratching tool from a cheap scratch board kit.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Day 7 of the challenge asked that we be creative and make a tool to move the glass powder around the sheet glass. I looked around and all I saw was a box of q-tips and some tools I already use for working both hot and cold glass, not very creative. Today's sketches are a close-up and a landscape featuring sandpipers, trying to include their reflection in the close-up. Both were inspired by my husband's photo of shore birds at Mayport Beach in Jacksonville, Florida.

Glass Powder Sgraffito Frit Painting of a Sandpipers and Their Reflection

Glass Powder Sgraffito Frit Painting of a Sandpipers at Mayport Beach

Mayport Beach in Jacksonville, Florida

To create my glass drawings I used two sifters, q-tips and some wax
carving tools from harbor freight. The q-tips were perfect for creating
the soft edges of the breaking waves. The shaped heads of the wax
carving tools were great at moving the powder but when you tap the glass
the powder has a tendency to jump slightly.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Day 6 and another 5 in 25 minutes with a focus on fish. I think things are getting easier because I didn't have a rush of self-doubt and anxiety when I sat down to begin this morning. The red fish tail is the one I am most happy and least dissatisfied with.